__________________"Those who are skilful and really the best ones don't have a bad luck [reasons of their falls are in themselves only]." - Ole Einar Bj°rndalen, who is not just best of the best; he can do everything.

There's an article in the San Jose Mercury News today about Kevin Kim at Aptos, which includes a little comment by Arnaud. Also, it seems there's a 23-year curse on the #1 seed at this challenger!!

The excerpt:
France's Arnaud Clement is the the No. 1 seed. He is ranked highest out of any other entry at no. 53 in the world, and will be trying to break the 23-year-old curse of noNo. 1 seed coming away with the title.
"We'll see if I can play good enough tennis. I'm gonna get a good draw, but hopefully I can continue to play well," Clement said.

Higherlaw Thank you for posting the article, it's not often that Challenger events get mentioned in media.

A 23-year curse? Sounds like a scary tournament Anyway with his current 120-something ranking Arnaud is only the #5 seed. And I wonder what kind of draw he considers as "good" these days

__________________"Those who are skilful and really the best ones don't have a bad luck [reasons of their falls are in themselves only]." - Ole Einar Bj°rndalen, who is not just best of the best; he can do everything.

"We'll see if I can play good enough tennis. I'm gonna get a good draw, but hopefully I can continue to play well," Clement said.

Yes we'll wait and see Bogomolov feels better on US hard court than on grass so normally a loss of Arno wouldn't be unexpected . As he plays in the middle of the night for us in france i'll see the result tomorrow. Arno was an highlight of the tournament presentation http://www.usta.com/sitecore/content...ediaNotes.ashx

So, he's been to two very beautiful places in the US--Newport and Santa Cruz--this month.

He has time to tourism now He has five days before Indianapolis I hope he takes a guide to visit all the places during these two month.

The summary on the Aptos website says that the match lasted 3 and a half hours Big battle and considering the fact he lost the final tie-break 12-10 he surely had MP I'm sure he lies when he says he's not here cos of his ranking but because of the game but the I'm in love with this game. I'm very lucky to be on tour and to do what i like to do sounds so real

It's never good to play the same player two weeks in a row especially when you lost . As it writes on the newpapers reported by Higherlaw Junior had a strategy which was to play the forehand of Arno and of course he was very confident. http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_12839934 Apparently it was an entertaining match and it's Bogomolov and not Arno who received a warning because too much complains about the crowd

Quote:

APTOS In a match that lasted more than three intense hours Tuesday night, Alex Bogomolov Jr. defeated France's Arnaud Clement 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 [10] in the first round of the Comerica Bank Challenger tennis tournament.

Each player used the entire court, forcing his opponent to stretch across Center Court at Seascape Sports Club and make creative returns. Both also brought out their power games. But the unseeded Bogomolov distinguished himself from the No. 5-seeded Clement with his hustle.
Bogomolov said he developed a winning strategy after beating Clement last week at a match in Newport on grass.
"I was feeling confident before the match, which is always a good way to begin," Bogomolov said. "Once it got going, I constructed the points the way I wanted to construct them."
After the first set, Clement began to pick up momentum. He used a combination of drop shots and aces to gain the advantage.
As the match picked up in intensity, so did the crowd noise, causing both players to pause to demand silence. Bogomolov resorted to hitting a ball toward the stands and was given a warning. After the match, however, he said the noise made the showdown more exciting.
"Once you are out there, it's easy to get frustrated," Bogomolov said. "Look, after the match, I think we both had fun. For me, playing tennis is fun. It goes hand in hand with every match."
After dropping the second set, Bogomolov changed his strategy, which helped him seal the victory and advance to a second-round match Thursday.
"I was trying to play his forehand more because he has a very solid backhand," Bogomolov said.
"It's always nice to get a win at night," he added. "You sleep much better."

pfffffff... worse and worse. If only I could change of favorite player as I want... would be easier. But I just can't !
I didn't place a bet on the good players at the beginning. Arnaud doesn't win a match and seb is still and still injured.

For Arno we wait a win after 6 loss but for sure he won't give up before being ousted of the challenger entry list He won't be seeded in next tournaments so we hope amazingly easy draw and even there is not yet the stats the serve seems to have been better yesterday.